back to article 'Most advanced mobile botnet EVER' is coming for your OFFICE Androids

A newly discovered variant of NotCompatible is establishing what has been called the most advanced mobile botnet yet created. Security researchers at Lookout warn that the latest version of the Android malware is capable of infiltrating secure enterprise networks via compromised devices. NotCompatible uses a peer-to-peer …

  1. phil dude
    Joke

    disguised as a system update...

    No chance I'm going to get it on my Asus TF101 then.....

    P.

    1. PaulR79

      Re: disguised as a system update...

      Damn. You beat me to it! I suspect a large amount of people would never see a system update so the likelihood of being affected by this is probably quite low. If you download apps from a third-party site you're taking a risk unless you're positive it's a genuine app.

      Just as Windows has numerous virus issues and exploits I've only run into them when I've gone to darker pastures for software.

      1. Michael Thibault
        Headmaster

        Re: disguised as a system update...

        @PaulR79 "a large amount of people" might be correct if you were serving up minced human flesh. However, since the "people" you are referring to are living, and are discrete and distinguishable and, therefore, countable, in most variants of English, correct usage would be, instead, "a large number of people".

        1. Mike Moyle

          @ Michael Thibault Was: Re: disguised as a system update...

          Perhaps Mr. R79 was just trying to match the tone of the article, which looks as though it didn't get proofread before being posted; viz. "...access the botnet is been rented out...", "Various generations of NotCompatible has infected..."

        2. Tom 35

          a large amount of people

          This is a 12-story block combining classical neo-Georgian features with the efficiency of modern techniques. The tenants arrive here and are carried along the corridor on a conveyor belt in extreme comfort, past murals depicting Mediterranean scenes, towards the rotating knives. The last twenty feet of the corridor are heavily soundproofed. The blood pours down these chutes and the mangled flesh slurps into these...

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just shows, if Linux was a popular as Windows on the desktop there would be viruses and malware.

    OSX is starting to get some as it has become more popular.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Mushroom

      No, it means bad security designs and luser stupidity/ignorance it's plaguing non-Microsoft products...and I'm sure you noticed Android in the article as opposed to *desktop*, right?

    2. Paul Crawford Silver badge

      Just shows if you give an ignorant person the ability to install crap with system-wide capabilities then you get Trojans.

  3. Brian Miller

    Plugging in phones to computers not allowed at Amazon

    Amazon has a policy that forbids people plugging in their phones to any Amazon computer, and they're quite upfront about it. As in, "plug it in, get fired."

    From the Lookout blog: "NotCompatible.C operators do not use any exploits that we know of and instead rely on social engineering tactics to trick victims into completing installation of the malware. One observed spam email informs the user that they need to install a “security patch” in order to view an attached file."

    So it sounds like, "Here's your attached system update. Plug in your phone, and put it in developer mode. Thanks for joining our botnet!"

  4. Darryl

    Gee, I wonder what Lookout is trying to sell

    1. Tom 35

      Sell

      "Lookout has thus far actively protected against NotCompatible on hundreds of thousands of devices in the U.S. and around the world."

      I expect this is another China phone users with no access to the google app store downloading crap from random app sites.

  5. This post has been deleted by its author

  6. Anonymoist Cowyard

    if only there was an alternative, or a security products..

    Oh, they sell one, that's handy

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "So I broke into the palace,

    With a sponge and a rusty spanner

    ..."

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